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Found 2 queens on one comb

I checked some hives today. In one nuc I found 2 queens on the same comb. One had the green mark from last year and the other was unmarked. I didnt see any queen cells on the combs so I think the other queen has been there for a while. I have no idea if she is mated or is viable to be a queen. What would you do? Smash the unknown queen or let the bees figure it out? It will be in the high 60s and low 70s next week.

Re: Found 2 queens on one comb

Originally Posted by JasonA

I checked some hives today. In one nuc I found 2 queens on the same comb. One had the green mark from last year and the other was unmarked. I didnt see any queen cells on the combs so I think the other queen has been there for a while. I have no idea if she is mated or is viable to be a queen. What would you do? Smash the unknown queen or let the bees figure it out? It will be in the high 60s and low 70s next week.

Jason, they already figured it out and created a supersedure queen. Or you had 2 all along. If you smash one you will be "deciding" Choose wisely
I see no point in doing anything, now. If they get too big split them then, or not. Maybe a good production Hive with 2 queens. Or 1 may not be much and the other is the "main" queen. If mine I would do nothing.

Re: Found 2 queens on one comb

Hey Jason I had a hive like that last year and the two queens stayed in there for awhile. Then one day I did a hive inspection and there was only one. The hive will figure out which one to keep hopefully its the better of the two. Not sure on your weather up there in NC and your bee population in that hive but you might think of doing a split. You can then figure out which is the better laying queen and you might luck out and have two good laying queens. Just a thought I would try. If it doesn't work out and one dies then you can just combine the hives.

Re: Found 2 queens on one comb

The "Bull of the Woods" is the German-Amaerican beekeeper that ran the beekeeping operation. He was blunt and to the point. For example, when cutting wood for bee equipment, the quote is "WE aren't building furniture, just bee houses"

My father would help out with things like comb honey and unpacking; and when bad weather got them behind.